As everybody in the Eketahuna Club seems to know, Smith was let out on temporary release from jail without anyone having the wit to think maybe he should be electronically monitored.

He did a bunk and flew to Chile using a passport obtained in his birth name.

And – so far as the best guess has it – he is now somehow in Brazil.

Sure, it hasn’t been much fun for the family of Smith’s victims. They have said they were fearful and some got police protection.

But there’s a funny side to it, if you have a wry sense of humour, including the increasing evidence that maybe Smith should be running the Corrections Department instead of the officials now in charge.

Inmates at the Polk County jail, Florida, will no longer receive free boxer shorts or briefs, in a move expected to save $45,000 (£27,900) a year.

Sheriff Grady Judd said prisoners at Polk County who refuse to pay for boxers instead will be ‘free spirits’.

Sheriff Judd should be brought out here for a chat with the Correctiond Department. His previous cutbacks have included substituting powdered milk for fresh in the canteen and pulling down the prison’s basketball hoops, saying ‘This is the county jail, it’s not a welfare programme.’